Kevin Feige Says Vulture Story Essential to Spider-Man: Homecoming

When it comes to the big villain twist in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Kevin Feige says the plotting was essential. For months now, those who follow the development of big movies have known something was up with Zendaya’s character in Homecoming. Following rumors that she was playing Mary Jane, the actor disregarded the notion at every turn. Then, new evidence emerged that her mysterious role was actually the daughter of the Vulture. The report was quickly shot down, but it appears there was a nugget of truth to it.

Of course, Zendaya was playing a version of MJ, just not Mary Jane Watson. But a twist involving the Vulture’s daughter still proved to be a crucial point in the film. Shocking most, Peter gets a rude awakening when he goes to pick up Liz for homecoming and learns that her dad is the villain he’s been chasing the whole movie. Though there were signs throughout the film, it’s still serves as a pretty solid twist that immediately generates one of the movie’s best scenes. Because of the key role the reveal plays in the plot however, everything had to be executed perfectly.

Fandango spoke with Kevin Feige about the shocking moment in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and he made sure to emphasize how important it was to the overall film:

“When we were developing it, we didn’t know if it would work when [Toomes] opens the door. If that didn’t work, the movie didn’t work.”

Given that the rest of the movie deals with Peter and Toomes facing off in a variety of ways, the reveal is more than just a shocking moment. It upends Peter’s world and slowly leads to the villain figuring who Spider-Man is. All told, it helps to give Vulture a complete arc of his own, meaning it was imperative the whole thing was handled correctly:

“We worked backwards and forwards from that moment. It was like two movies — it was the movie up until then and the movie after that moment. Because it had to surprise you, but it had to be true, also. You had to believe that we had set it up so that you would buy it [and it] doesn’t seem like something out of left field. That’s a pretty great moment and we didn’t know until we showed it to audiences and every time it was like, “(Gasps),” and then you knew it was okay.”

There’s no telling what the future holds for Toomes or his cohorts. Liz’s future in the franchise is also in question given her exit at the end of the film. Still, with an actor the caliber of Michael Keaton and the MCU actually keeping a villain alive, we can’t imagine the Vulture is gone for long. After all, he’d be perfect for a Sinister Six movie.